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    Can't establish PPPoE connection

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved 2.0-RC Snapshot Feedback and Problems - RETIRED
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    • A
      azzido
      last edited by

      Been strugling with this for the past few days so maybe someone can point me to the right direction.

      About a week ago I upgraded my ATT DSL from 3 to 6 Mbps line and ever since pfSense cannot establish PPPoE connection. Before ATT changed it everything was working just fine, but now pfSense refuses to connect. MPD logs dont show any useful info that would help me troubleshoot this.
      PPPoE on the modem connects just fine so I know that user name and password are correct. I assume something changed on ATT side because I did not change anything on my setup before it stopped working. How should I go about troubleshooting this?

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      • G
        gnhb
        last edited by

        post your logs from /var/run/ppp.log

        Also, did you upgrade pfSense? At some point in the beta cycle we went from storing passwords for PPPoE in clear text to storing them encoded, so if you upgraded, and didn't re-enter and Save your PPPoE config data your link won't come up. :)

        Hope that helps.

        GB

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        • A
          azzido
          last edited by

          Hi gnhb, I am running the latest snap as of this writing. I removed and added PPPoE config several times and also restored from the backup that did not have PPPoE config so I am sure it is stored in the correct format. My ppp.log file is always empty and the only thing that I see in system.log is that PPPoE timed out and it will re-try in n seconds.

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          • W
            wallabybob
            last edited by

            Your ethernet link between pfSense and the modem is UP?

            A packet trace on the link to the modem shows traffic in both direction?

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            • A
              azzido
              last edited by

              I connected my computer directly to the modem and tried establishing PPPoE from Windows 7 and Linux using pppd and both worked just fine so I think there might be something wrong with mpd5.

              I was wrong then I stated that my ppp.log is empty; it's the pppoe.log that is empty. Here is what I have in ppp.log:

              Aug 15 20:43:39 zzzz ppp: process 21135 started, version 5.5 (root@FreeBSD_8.0_pfSense_2.0-snaps.pfsense.org 17:45  2-Jul-2010)                                                           
              Aug 15 20:43:39 zzzz ppp: web: web is not running                                                                                                                                         
              Aug 15 20:43:39 zzzz ppp: [wan] Bundle: Interface ng0 created                                                                                                                             
              Aug 15 20:43:39 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] Link: OPEN event                                                                                                                                   
              Aug 15 20:43:39 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] LCP: Open event                                                                                                                                     
              Aug 15 20:43:39 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] LCP: state change Initial –> Starting                                                                                                             
              Aug 15 20:43:39 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] LCP: LayerStart                                                                                                                                     
              Aug 15 20:43:39 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] PPPoE: Connecting to ''                                                                                                                           
              Aug 15 20:43:48 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] PPPoE connection timeout after 9 seconds                                                                                                           
              Aug 15 20:43:48 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] Link: DOWN event                                                                                                                                   
              Aug 15 20:43:48 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] LCP: Down event                                                                                                                                     
              Aug 15 20:43:48 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] Link: reconnection attempt 1 in 2 seconds                                                                                                           
              Aug 15 20:43:50 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] Link: reconnection attempt 1                                                                                                                       
              Aug 15 20:43:50 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] PPPoE: Connecting to '
              '                                                                                                                           
              Aug 15 20:43:59 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] PPPoE connection timeout after 9 seconds                                                                                                           
              Aug 15 20:43:59 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] Link: DOWN event                                                                                                                                   
              Aug 15 20:43:59 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] LCP: Down event                                                                                                                                     
              Aug 15 20:43:59 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] Link: reconnection attempt 2 in 2 seconds                                                                                                           
              Aug 15 20:44:01 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] Link: reconnection attempt 2                                                                                                                       
              Aug 15 20:44:01 zzzz ppp: [wan_link0] PPPoE: Connecting to '*'

              this is few days old, but I tried today with the latest snap and it's doing the same thing.

              I ran tcpdump on wan interface and here is what I got:

              12:40:28.815196 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq "@8*."] [Service-Name ""]
              12:40:32.836369 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x40C1C4C2] [Service-Name "
              "]
              12:40:34.835255 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x40C1C4C2] [Service-Name ""]
              12:40:38.835295 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x40C1C4C2] [Service-Name "
              "]
              12:40:44.856505 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0xC0F40BC3] [Service-Name ""]
              12:40:46.855372 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0xC0F40BC3] [Service-Name "
              "]
              12:40:50.855411 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0xC0F40BC3] [Service-Name ""]
              12:40:54.876520 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0xC0472AC3] [Service-Name "
              "]
              12:40:56.875465 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0xC0472AC3] [Service-Name ""]
              12:41:00.875509 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0xC0472AC3] [Service-Name "
              "]
              12:41:07.896737 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x00382AC3] [Service-Name ""]
              12:41:09.895594 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x00382AC3] [Service-Name "
              "]
              12:41:13.895640 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x00382AC3] [Service-Name ""]
              12:41:18.916847 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x00392AC3] [Service-Name "
              "]
              12:41:20.915699 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x00392AC3] [Service-Name ""]
              12:41:24.915743 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x00392AC3] [Service-Name "
              "]
              12:41:30.936964 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x80472AC3] [Service-Name ""]
              12:41:32.935821 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x80472AC3] [Service-Name "
              "]
              12:41:36.935857 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x80472AC3] [Service-Name ""]
              12:41:40.957052 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x00452AC3] [Service-Name "
              "]
              12:41:42.955917 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x00452AC3] [Service-Name ""]
              12:41:46.955956 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x00452AC3] [Service-Name "
              "]
              12:41:52.977148 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq "@A*."] [Service-Name ""]
              12:41:54.976033 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq "@A
              ."] [Service-Name ""]
              12:41:58.976070 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq "@A
              ."] [Service-Name ""]
              12:42:03.997328 PPPoE PADI [Host-Uniq 0x80472AC3] [Service-Name "
              "]

              anyone has any ideas?

              TIA

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              • A
                azzido
                last edited by

                Found the problem. When 'Service name' in the PPPoE config is left empty mpd_wan.conf file will be generated without 'set pppoe service' command. What it needs to put there instead is this:

                set pppoe service ""

                once I added the line PPPoE connection was established just fine. Devs, can you please fix it or I can provide a patch.

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                • G
                  gnhb
                  last edited by

                  Commited changes. Added a new checkbox if you want to set an explicit blank service name.

                  https://rcs.pfsense.org/projects/pfsense/repos/mainline/commits/c66673968c2611d20f33b460e2bd2a31ecaaba53

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                  • A
                    azzido
                    last edited by

                    Hi gnhb, thanks for adding it. I tried it and it works fine, but there is one problem.

                    If I click save on Inerfaces -> WAN page empty service name is not added to mpd_wan.conf, so I have to go to PPP config page and click save, only then I am able to establish PPPoE connection. Also if I save config on PPP page, then save on WAN page and then go back to PPP page 'Configure a NULL Service name' will no longer be checked. I think it would make most sense to have 'Configure a NULL Service name' check box available on WAN page (if PPPoE is selected) as well as PPP page so it's less confusing to set it up.

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